Real guns and hideout make for explosive theatre

IF you fancy being abducted by disreputable types with real guns and brought to a secret location where your safety feels in question, then a night out at the theatre is the thing for you.

Or so Semper Fi theatre company would have you believe. They stage their show, Adrenalin, at an unknown location in Dublin from this Monday and for the rest of the Dublin Fringe Festival.

The show, an homage to 1970s heist movies, involves meeting on the steps of Dublin’s Customs House, being brought in a blacked out bus to a warehouse somewhere in the city centre, and witnessing a van burst through the door, as gun-blazing gangsters come back from a job.

“Nothing has been seen in Ireland like this before - it’s quite violent in places,” said writer Paul Walker, as he spoke from rehearsals with gunfire sounding in the background.

“We use real gun-fire and arms. It’s a hugely technical show,” he said.

The story involves an auctioneer showing a prospective buyer around a warehouse when the mobsters arrive. They are taken hostage as police surround the building and the heist that went right suddenly goes badly wrong.

“The show’s about human nature,” said Walker. “How you survive in an extreme situation and the lengths you’ll go to in order to survive.”

Set in the 1970s, the show has a soundtrack as funky as Reservoir Dogs - one of the play’s influences - and mixes comedy and violence in a way that made Quentin Tarantino famous.

“You’ll be laughing but feeling that you shouldn’t be laughing,” said Walker, who added that the show “is for over-16s, and not for the faint-hearted.”

Semper Fi, the company behind the production, has made something of a name for itself in recent years, with off-beat, risky shows.

Ladies and Gents, for example, was set in the public toilets of Dublin’s Stephen’s Green and told the story of a political career ruined by sex. It won the Sexiest Show Award at the 2002 Fringe Festival.

But off-beat shows are nothing new for the Dublin Fringe Festival - that’s what this three-week theatre feast is all about.

Check out www.fringefest.com to find out more.

And if you head to Adrenalin, don’t worry. You’ll be dropped back where you were picked up in one piece. Well, there or there abouts.